Children's TV favourite Worzel Gummidge could be back on our screens as early as next year.

Pirates of the Caribbean and The Office star Mackenzie Crook is working on a script for the BBC with plans to step into the main role himself.

The star, 46, is working hard to bring back the beloved TV show based on the books by Barbara Euphan Todd about scarecrow Worzel.

It was last on screens in 1987 with former Doctor Who star Jon Pertwee in the title role.

Mackenzie is writing the script (Image: WireImage)

Worzel could be back on telly as early as next year (Image: Channel 4)

Jon Pertwee played Worzel (Image: REX/Shutterstock)

The show is not a reboot of the original series, but a contemporary adaptation of the original books.

It's in the very early stages of development, and it's understood that a script has not yet been written.

A spokesman for Mackenzie told Mirror Online: "Mackenzie Crook is currently in the very early stages of developing a contemporary adaptation of Barbara Euphan Todd’s original Worzel Gummidge books as a new TV series for the BBC."

Worzel famously had a set of interchangeable heads, made from turnip, swede and other things, with each one giving him a special skilll.

The books were adapted for radio and TV a number of times, but the incarnation with Pertwee was the best known.

How Mackenzie could look as the character (Image: Getty/Rex)

Mackenzie in Pirates of the Caribbean (Image: Disney)

He starred alongside Ricky Gervais in The Office (Image: BBC)

Worzel the scarecrow would come to life on Scatterbrook Farm and get up to mischief with children John and Susan who visited the farm during the school holidays .

The children often found themselves in trouble for the naughty things Worzel did as he'd slump off and become a normal lifeless scarecrow as they insisted it was him who did whatever they were being blamed for.